River Otter: Swim in the Light

Why are there seven days in a week?

Why are there twelve months in a year?

Why are there 360 degrees in a circle?

Why would I care?

Why are there four suits in a deck of cards?

Why can aces be both high and low? Why is there a King and a Queen, but the Jack has no Jill?

Why do Astronomers tell you that today the Sun is in Pisces but Astrologers tell you that He is in Aries?

How can I as a trained scientist (B.S. in Earth Science and Ecology) tell you with a straight face that they are both right from a mathematical and scientific perspective?

With all these intellectual and philosophic curiosities, the most important question is:

How can I use these mysteries to both improve myself, my relationship with the world, and achieve my greatest heart’s desire?

In these posts I will shed some light on how I sometimes succeeded and sometimes spectacularly failed on this journey.

I have been exploring these mysteries for 35 years or more, and like Hydra, each answer sprouts seven new questions. That said, I think it is time for me to share my thoughts, feelings, aspirations, and experiences.

“Kabalistic foreshadowing? How clever.”

It is an author’s conceit that there is value in introducing oneself before getting to the point. It is the reader’s prerogative to skip the introduction, but I hope that knowing a bit about me may frame this conversation and hopefully not just be the bona fide blustering of a blowhard:

• I am a Second-degree Priest of Gardnerian Wicca, initiated by a true Magus and Sensei in Syracuse in the mid 90s. These folks were the real-deal and opened my eyes to the possibilities of a disciplined life pursuing the Great Work.

• Around that time, I was initiated as a second level Reiki energy healer. While I am not really active in this space anymore, I practiced mostly on Musicians in my circle—we are an achy bunch.

• Also around then, I became an initiated Associate Frater with Builders of the Adytum (B.O.T.A.), a Mystery School a teaching and training Order in the Western, Qabalistic-Hermetic tradition. The practice includes study, meditation, imagery, and ritual with spiritual Alchemy, esoteric Astrology and Tarot.

I paused all this work in the mid-2000s to raise a family, move across the continent, pursue my career, and follow other interests.

In the last year or so, I have renewed my studies and my vows, and have embarked on a daily practice that fuses my BOTA studies with solitary self-initiation into the mysteries as taught by The Golden Dawn, The Planetary Magick of the Aurum Solis, the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.).

It is also worth noting that I have been an educator and trainer in the public and private space for 35 years and my award-winning work has been delivered and completed by millions of people in 165 countries and a dozen languages and covering subjects as diverse as ethics to helicopter maintenance--epidemiology to computer programming.

This may all be gobbledygook to you, or it may be shrug-worthy 101 stuff. Either way I will be posting about all these topics and more and hopefully you will enjoy these pages, learn something, and come back to Swim in the Light with me!

Yours in L.V.X,

Frater Lutra: Natare in Lumine

AKA Papa Coyote